ComodIT’s “direct install” button allows for quick installation of apps on on-premise or cloud-based servers, and even makes it possible to test-drive apps for free in a ComodIT-sponsored EC2 micro instance. Read more »
The deployment of smart meters combined with the growth of cloud computing infrastructure has created opportunities to build business models around the volume of emerging energy data. Those who use data to solve customer problems and leverage decades of software development and advances in big data will attract investment dollars. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Big data technologies are like manufacturing robots: they let people do what they’re already trying to do, only faster than before and at a much greater scale. But as with any other product, that analyzed data is nothing without humans to do something with it. Read more »
Media startup Journatic has come under fire for using fake bylines for hyper-local content that appeared in the Chicago Tribune and elsewhere. But the reality is that something like Journatic is likely a part of the future of local journalism, whether we like it or not. Read more »
Android enthusiasts have a new way to control their smartphone or tablet, courtesy of Microsoft. The company released a new Android app and supporting web service Tuesday called on{X}, which lets users create JavaScript code or simple recipes that add automated tasks to their connected device. Read more »
AT&T’s Digital Life program may have started overseas, but this summer AT&T will offer its new connected home service in two U.S. trial markets, Atlanta and Dallas, where it will install home monitoring and automation devices that homeowners can access from a browser, smartphone or tablet. Read more »
Everybody who has watched The Terminator knows about Skynet, the computing system that becomes self-aware and decides to destroy humanity. But I look at cloud computing and automated systems and I fear something much more depressing: the total leisure paradise of the movie Wall-E. Read more »
Large data centers are increasingly moving to converged infrastructure, and most of the chatter has been about this slick, new hardware. But it also has deep implications for enterprise employees and the CIOS and managers that must retrain them — or do away with them altogether. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
This year’s CES was the biggest in the show’s 44-year history. It boasted 15 miles of exhibit hall aisles, 3,100 booths and 153,000 attendees. It is easy to be jaded by the endlessly repetitive products, but the thousands of innovations point toward a future of connectivity. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson’s new book Race Against the Machine, about how smart machines are taking white-collar jobs, plays on popular anxieties about the future of work. But at least one futurist thinks a machine-filled future might actually make us more human. Read more »
When you’re running a large web infrastructure, automation is critical to ensure that administrators aren’t spending their every waking seconds putting dealing with downed servers. Google, Yahoo and other pioneers had to figure out how to automate failover in their data centers. Now it’s Facebook’s turn. Read more »
VMware, the company that helped jumpstart the cloud with the creation of the hypervisor, is now focused on enabling the automation and scale that are the most essential elements of building out a platform for the post-PC era. Read more »
According to a post today on the Facebook Engineering blog, the social networking leader undertook an effort called “Project Triforce,” which involved provisioning a replica production region from an existing cluster, to ensure the site could run smoothly across three regions without falling on its face. Read more »
Using the APIs really isn’t as hard to use as people seem to think. In this post, I’m going to show you how you can make use of APIs (perhaps to gather data, or to carry out some automation) with no programming. Read more »
Lately, I’ve been taking a look at many of the tasks that I do on a regular basis and thinking about ways that I can automate them. There are many things that you can do to eliminate routine tasks that don’t require specialist knowledge. Read more »
I’ve got a horrible memory. While I’ve moved as much of my life to the cloud and my iDevices as possible, the reality is even though I’ll put a document in my Dropbox folder meaning to “do something” with it, I won’t. Read more »
The reality sets in once you start getting busy. What once what once seemed like a badge of honor starts resembling a ball and chain. Even if you thoroughly love your work, you can see the billable hours trap you’ve set for yourself. Read more »
Applications, services, tools, plug-ins, add-ons, bookmarklets — there’s an endless list of things we look to in an effort to be more efficient. Here at WWD, we write about all of them and how they can be of benefit to us. We discuss how they look, […] Read more »
It’s easy to get trapped by our own limited thinking. One way small business owners do that is by believing that we have to be directly involved in everything that happens within our companies. This holds us back in a few ways. Read more »
Originally introduced in OS X Tiger, Automator is a drag-and-drop form of scripting. You can create workflows to easily speed up many tasks. With each version of OS X, Automator has seen some improvements, but with Snow Leopard, it finally realizes its full potential. It realizes […] Read more »
